The Boston Bruins are finding ways to win in their series with the Carolina Hurricanes, despite missing two of their key regular-season players.
With number one goalie Tuukka Rask opting to head home and David Pastrnak managing to injure himself celebrating, the Boston Bruins are missing a candidate for the Vezina Trophy and the joint winner of the Maurice Richard Trophy.
Despite that, they’re still leading the series with the Carolina Hurricanes by two games to one and are looking good to keep up that level of play.
Scratch beneath the surface though and there is a clear story emerging of the Boston Bruins’ special teams being absolutely vital to the results in this series.
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Although in the last game, we only managed to convert a goal in 1 of 5 power plays, we also managed to add a short-handed goal. This proved vital given we gave up 5 penalties ourselves which led Jaroslav Halak to concede his only goal against on a Canes’ power-play.
Game 3 almost perfectly summarises exactly what we’re talking about – Charlie Coyle grabbed a goal on the power-play in the second period, with Sean Kuraly adding what turned out to be the game-winning goal with the Boston Bruins short-handed in the third.
The special teams are the absolute key area for the Boston Bruins to come out of this series with a win and move on to the second round.
Likewise, going back one game further; both goals in the Game 2 loss also came courtesy of the power-play; David Krejci and Brad Marchand notching those tallies. In fact, you have to go back to Game 1 to find the Boston Bruins scoring even-strength goals.
The Bruins’ power-play surely only strengthens when we eventually get the full-time return to the line-up of David Pastrnak. His ability to fire home in an almost Ovechkin-like fashion was a dangerous tool for the team in the regular season and helped him net at least a few of his 48-goal tally.
If we can continue to stifle the Canes when we inevitably give up power plays to them and then capitalise when it inevitably swings the other way, winning this series should be no problem.
Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.